


Birds On My Window

by anax imperator (anax)



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, WAFFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-15 19:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17534882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anax/pseuds/anax%20imperator
Summary: A little WAFFy thing with Roy and Ed, written for a friend of mine.





	Birds On My Window

Roy had gone about halfway through the work in his inbox when he suddenly frowned at the sheet of paper he'd uncovered. It had been lurking under the division performance reports, things he generally put off worrying about for as long as possible, and so there was really no telling how long it had been there.

"Is something wrong, sir?" asked Hawkeye, when she caught his expression, and Roy put on one glove and picked up the sheet of paper delicately by the corner to hold it up for her.

The page was covered by an almost-illegible scrawl, the letters leaning hard to the left and so angular that Roy almost couldn't tell what language it was supposed to be, much less what it was supposed to say. The paper itself was tattered and ripped around the edges, smeared in ... something that Roy hoped was just dirt, and there was a coffee ring in the lower right-hand corner.

Hawkeye frowned when she got a good look at it. "I'm sorry, sir, I don't know how that got in there." She reached to take it, but Roy pulled it back before she could.

"What _is_ it?" he asked, eyeing it where it dangled from the tips of his fingers. "Is that Fullmetal's signature?"

"In all likelihood, yes sir." Her expression was casual, but Roy didn't miss the way she was looking anywhere but at the sorry-looking page of scribble. Roy turned the page around to examine the back of it, and raised an eyebrow.

"I had no idea Fullmetal was such an artist," he said, amused.

"Yes, sir."

"You've been typing up his reports before you give them to me, haven't you?" He leaned back in his chair, turning the dirty page back and forth by the corner, between the homicidal doodles on the back and the illegible report on the front.

Hawkeye sighed. "Yes, sir. If you give me that one, I'll have it typed up by this afternoon." But when she reached for the page again, Roy lifted it out of reach once more.

"No, that's all right. I'll keep this one."

* * *

A clatter of voices from the outer office made Roy glance up from the chart he was making; as soon as he heard Hawkeye say warmly, "You're back. How was the trip?" he knew that Fullmetal had returned from Mendich. The chitchat went on for several minutes. Roy couldn't make out many words, but the voices sounded easy and relaxed, even Fullmetal's, and it was a challenge to keep a smile off his face. It wouldn't do to smile - a smile would kill Fullmetal's mood faster than anything else, because the boy's paranoia would take over - but Roy had to admit that he did kind of like it when the child came home.

He also had to admit that he kind of envied Fullmetal ... the lieutenant never spoke to _him_ in that warm of a tone.

Eventually, Fullmetal said from immediately outside his open doorway, "Remind me later to tell you about the chickens. You are not going to believe about the chickens." Roy looked up to see Fullmetal in the doorway, grinning at someone in the outer office, and then the boy turned around and for a moment that grin was directed at him.

"Hey," said Fullmetal irreverently, and although the grin faded, a pleased quirk lingered at the corner of the boy's mouth. "You want this door closed?"

"Welcome back," said Roy, doing his best to keep his amusement to himself. "No, you can leave it open. So what's the story with the chickens?"

"Oh, that." Fullmetal threw himself down at the opposite end of the couch, sprawling as only a child for whom back problems were a myth could sprawl. "It's kind of sad, but funny in a way. See, there was this guy in Mendich, and he had these chickens. Most of them were normal chickens, but there were a couple that were white, like albino chickens, and he was telling people ..."

When Fullmetal abruptly halted his story and stared at the front of Roy's desk, Roy actually had to cover his mouth with his hand momentarily to keep his face straight. "What," said Fullmetal slowly, "is that?"

"It was such nice artwork, I thought the rest of the office would want to look at it too."

The quirky little smile was gone now, supplanted by a glare that flicked between Roy's face and the place where Roy had fastened the decorated report, turned so that the reverse side with all the doodles faced the door. Roy leaned sideways in his chair and said, "I especially liked the one near the bottom where I'm being eaten by wolves and crying because I can't defend myself without my gloves."

The glare sharpened into a stormy frown, and for a moment Roy was certain that Fullmetal was about to jump up and run over to snatch the page. And in the end the boy did get up, but he stalked angrily toward the door to leave instead.

Roy let himself smile then and picked up his pen to resume work on the chart. It really was nice when Fullmetal was home.


End file.
